One issue that has gained unwarranted media attention in the last few years is the movement supporting reparations for American slavery. Proponents of this movement include the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Johnnie Cochran and Randall Robinson. They contend that the United States should compensate black Americans for the unpaid labor that some of their ancestors performed up until the Civil War. Although most Americans support the ideals of justice, equality and fairness, this movement does not truly uphold them. There are a number of valid reasons why reparations for slavery are an injustice to present-day Americans of all ethnic groups, and why the movement must be discarded into the trash heap of ideas.
The most important fact overlooked or ignored by reparations supporters is that slavery has existed all over the world for thousands of years. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Aztecs, Arabs, Chinese, Indians and many other cultures used slaves for various purposes. While slavery was legal in The United States of America for less than 100 years, many of the other civilizations had slavery for thousands of years. In fact, the people who actually captured the slaves who would eventually come to America were other Africans! No other group of people is asking for compensation for unpaid labor. Descendents of American slaves must believe that their case is special for some reason. This is where the idea of reparations becomes problematic: Why should American businesses be the only ones targeted for litigation when many African people became prosperous through the slave trade? It is true that American companies with their capitalistic methods made larger profits over time from the practice of slavery, but that should not be enough for singling out only them. One must also consider the role played by the Dutch and British slave traders who became wealthy from the slave trade. How will descendents of these people be made to compensate for their actions? The answer is that they will not be targeted because they do not have enough money. Supporters of reparations are obviously more concerned about all of the money to be made in lawyer fees than actually making a moral point.
Another reason reparations are unjust is that there were some free black Americans who actually owned slaves themselves. But you will not read this in any mainstream news media article or hear it in the liberal dominated university classroom. According to the census in 1860, the city of New Orleans contained 3000 free blacks that owned slaves. Professor John Hope Franklin of Duke University asserts that there were 10,600 free blacks in that city. This means that almost one-third of free blacks in New Orleans owned slaves in 1860! When compared to the total percent of whites that owned slaves in the South, (less than 5%) the numbers show that a higher percentage of free blacks owned slaves than did whites. This leads to another valid reason why reparations is ridiculous: If only 5% of whites in the South owned slaves, then this means that less than 5% of Americans today are ancestors of slave owners. So why should the other 95% be made to feel guilty for something that none of their ancestors had anything to do with.
Another fact often overlooked or ignored (or suppressed) by supporters of reparations is the enslavement of whites in America, or as left-wing professors like to call them, "indentured servants". Writer Elaine Kendall has said, "Who wants to be reminded that half - perhaps as many as two-thirds - of the original American colonists came here, not of their own free will, but kidnapped, shanghaied, impressed, duped, beguiled, and yes, in chains - ? ...we tend to gloss over it... we'd prefer to forget the whole sorry chapter." She was speaking of the thousands of indentured servants that were forced to come to the colonies and work in the same conditions as black slaves. The majority of whites in the colonies, in fact, were indentured servants. Therefore, far more Americans today are descendants of white slaves than descendant of slave owners. Yet, there is no outcry for compensation for unpaid labor in the past from any of these slave descendants. We should also never forget the plight of the millions of immigrants that came to America and faced horrid living conditions, violence, crime and unfair wages. What these people faced in their day-to-day struggle must not be made to seem trivial, by caving in to irrational calls for slave reparations.
One final point that must be made is the condition of black Americans today. Thanks to the courageous leaders of the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties, black Americans enjoy the freedoms that they and all people of the world deserve. This country has learned from its past, corrected its flaws, and ended one of the most barbaric practices in its history. It took the lives of thousands of its citizens to grant blacks their freedom in the Civil War. Many died to rid this country of the institution that Robert E. Lee called, "a moral and political evil." Another observation Lee made still holds true today. He said that black Americans were "immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically." Africa is a continent plagued by war, famine, disease, ethnic cleansing, poverty, intolerance, anarchy and yes, slavery. This is made clear by the existence of such groups as the Coalition Against Slavery in Mauritania and Sudan. The US State Department and Human Rights Watch/Africa both admit to the existence of slavery in Africa. Jesse Jackson and members of the NAACP have been absolutely silent on this issue. This begs the question, "If Jackson and other black leaders are not doing everything possible to end black slavery now, then do they actually care about black slavery that occurred a hundred and fifty years ago?" It may be that these leaders of the reparations movement are only interested in suing large corporations so that they can reap the benefits themselves. If this is so, then that is very tragic indeed, and black Americans should find themselves some new leaders.
The United States is the most tolerant nation in the history of the world. The people of this country agree that slavery is an immoral institution that never should have survived for so long. But, we have learned from our past, and must now move on with our lives. We must go forward as one people and live out the dreams of great leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He spoke of a nation where black and white, and people of all races join together as one people. Let us not retard the progress we have made by schemes that only create more bitterness, animosity and division among us. Let us do what is best for all people in this nation. Let us discard the idea of reparations for slavery to the trash bin of flawed concepts.
Brendan Steinhauser is a Government junior at the University of Texas.